Fourth Sunday In Lent (C) 2019

+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.

Text: Luke 15:32
Theme: No Longer Lost

Dear followers to the cross,

Jesus could hold an audience. But He never used fanciful illustrations. He never spun legends or propagated myths. He wasn’t just trying to keep potential followers on a string. He wasn’t trying to ‘big note’ Himself with His skills of oration. All of His parables brought hearers into contact with divine truth. Every analogy He used was purposeful. He spoke with intent- to open the heart, transform the will, and educate the mind. The heart will always have an object of trust. It must have contact with the true God lest it be devoted to idols. The will always seeks to serve or to be served. It must know its true Master. The mind will always be formed by those who teach it. It must know the true Teacher.

There could hardly be a more personally moving image of God than this picture of a father being reconciled with his son. It’s a heart-warming portrayal, one of Jesus’ most vivid and relatable parables. It speaks to the key elements of having sustainable relationships. What person among us has a complete set of fully functioning godly relationships? Don’t be too hasty with your assumptions. Don’t be too proud with your responses. A relationship you might think is going swimmingly actually has someone drowning on the other end of it. An affiliation that’s brought you great blessings may have caused much heartache for someone else.

Dear friends, the closer we are to someone, the deeper the pain of separation. The father had written the younger son off for dead. He was lost forever. The entire emphasis of this chapter is about finding the lost. In this life there are degrees of ‘lostness’. Malaysian Airlines flight 370 disappeared on March 8th, 2014. It was lost. On the 17th of December 1967 Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared. He was lost. Amelia Earhart vanished while circumnavigating the globe in 1937. She was lost. All cases have baffled authorities. On the 30th of July 1975, Jimmy Hoffa, president of the international Teamsters Union disappeared from a restaurant parking lot. He was never located, but authorities suspect his planned meeting with other mob bosses probably had something to do with it. Still, he was never found.

We all experience degrees of lostness. When a loved one dies, the loss- in this life anyway- is complete. But many things we think are slipping away and might be lost, God can and will recover. Maybe you, or someone you know, is lost in addiction or cycles of self-destructive behavior? Maybe once healthy relationships are in decline? Maybe community identity or vocational identity has been lost? Maybe the way has been lost spiritually? Maybe sin has completely severed the relationship with God? It’s exactly these realities that Jesus addresses today. The Saviour says, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”1

Lostness in today’s society often comes in the form of confusion or despair about how individuals should relate to others in a meaningful way. The challenge is being expressed in the culture wars that have been gripping our society. From a biblical perspective, we can see that a broad and pervasive ‘identity theft’ is being promoted. We’re being fed the dream of self-referential autonomy. What, or who, do we define ourselves in relation to? The answer that’s being pushed with ideological aggression is simply, ourselves! The individual is the measure of all things! While there might be earthly authorities to keep some semblance of order, the philosophy is that we have the right and the ability to define our own existence- ideologically, vocationally, sexually, even existentially. The madness of it would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious.

What does this kind of thinking do to the biblical understanding that all humans are created in the image of God? Humans have a unique identity in relation to the Almighty. We have souls. We are endowed with the capacity to contemplate and appreciate the meaning of existence. We’re able to look forward to an afterlife. We’re not simply governed by animalistic instinct and destined to succumb to the dogma of the ’survival of the fittest’. We are created to reflect the glory of God. Self-defined identity is an illusion. Our lives can have no real meaning apart from God.

Often, of course, our lostness is a direct result of our personal, sinful behavior. We chose to go our own way, do our own thing, and ignore the will of God. Defiance of God’s will catches up with everyone sooner or later. Here is where the parable really strikes home. The prodigal son squandered his inheritance, fell on hard times, hit rock bottom, and found himself lost. From those depths, God turned his will in repentance, and he set off for home to be reunited with his family. In so doing, he was fully expecting to have to lower himself in apologetic regret.

Yet, the father was already brimming over with the expectation of reconciliation. He was holding no grudges. The father’s heart was open long before his arms were extended. His soul was rushing to embrace his son before his legs took a single stride. Anticipation kept him focused. Hope pushed him forward.

That’s the image of our heavenly Father. You see, your baptism was an act of reconciliation. Your estrangement from God from the time of your conception due to original sin was ended. You were restored, made part of His family. God’s arms were opened wide to you. You were given a new name and a new identity. This happened by the substitutionary work of Christ as the apostle says today, “God made Him [Christ] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”2 Our reunion was possible because of Jesus’ own estrangement on the cross. The pain of separation that caused Jesus to utter the words of the Psalm, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”3 is beyond our knowing. Yet it was all for us and for our salvation. All that Christ has, all He has gained through His suffering, death, and resurrection is ours. The Scripture says, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs-heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ...”4 Christ is the executor of the heavenly estate and He freely dispenses its treasures to us. Whenever you receive Christ’s body and blood you are enjoying His heavenly treasures.

The parable ends by addressing the tension between the father and the older son. Jaded and feeling cheated, the older son cries unfair to his father. He distances himself from his younger brother, wanting his father to chastise him instead of forgiving him. His focus is misplaced. He is not concerned about the restoration of his brother. He wants to protect his own standing within the family and community. He’s not willing to give his younger brother another chance. His hard-heartedness reveals he has also misjudged his own father. He says, “Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!” But the father said to him, “‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.'"5

Dear friends, Jesus wasn’t spinning interesting stories. We were the lost. We have been found. We were dead. Yet in Him, and through Him. and to Him we live. And whatever the degree of ‘lostness’ we experience in this life; in the world to come we will never be separated from the comfort and joy of his presence. Thanks be to God!

+ In nomine Jesu +

Fourth Sunday in Lent
31 March 2019
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Luke 19:10
2 2 Corinthians 5:21
3 Psalm 22:1
4 Romans 8:16-17
5 Luke 15:29-32